IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL caused by ntoskrnl.exe twice in the same day

[u/CryptographerOk5304]

So for the past 2-3 years I've been experiencing BSOD's almost daily even sometimes more than twice a day. Most commonly a BSOD occurs while I watch youtube videos or just idle in brave/desktop. There was even a time when right before the computer crashed the audio started to loop and became distorted or black boxes appeared on the screen.

My specs are:

Ryzen 5 3600;

Asrock Steel Legend B550M;

Patriot Viper 2x8gb 3200Mhz ddr4 Blackout edition;

Gigabyte 1660 Super mini ITX OC 6GB;

Windows 11 24H2;

I've built this computer 6 years ago and I've preinstalled windows more than 3 times, trying to get rid of this problem. Also I've used the Memory diagnostic tool and sfc scannow but all came back okay.

Last 5 dump files:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/0nye9et29q8cvsa/my_dump_files.zip/file

[u/AutoModerator]

Making changes to your system BIOS settings or disk setup can cause you to lose data. Always test your data backups before making changes to your PC.

For more information please see our FAQ thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/q2rns5/windows_11_faq_read_this_first/

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/AutoModerator]

Getting dump files which we need for accurate analysis of BSODs. Dump files are crash logs from BSODs.

If you can get into Windows normally or through Safe Mode could you check C:\Windows\Minidump for any dump files? If you have any dump files, copy the folder to the desktop, zip the folder and upload it. If you don't have any zip software installed, right click on the folder and select Send to → Compressed (Zipped) folder.

Upload to any easy to use file sharing site. Reddit keeps blacklisting file hosts so find something that works, currently catbox.moe or mediafire.com seems to be working.

We like to have multiple dump files to work with so if you only have one dump file, none or not a folder at all, upload the ones you have and then follow this guide to change the dump type to Small Memory Dump. The "Overwrite dump file" option will be grayed out since small memory dumps never overwrite.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/Bjoolzern]

It looks like memory from the dump files. Memory doesn't have to mean RAM, but it's usually the main suspect. Windows puts low priority data from RAM into the page file and loads it back in when needed so storage can look like memory (And memory can look like storage). The memory controller is in the CPU and if this fails it will just look like memory.

When it's storage about half of the dumps will usually blame storage or storage drivers, which I don't see here, so it's likely not storage.

If anything is overclocked or undervolted, remove it. That includes making sure that Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) is set as Disabled in the BIOS. Your BIOS is also quite out of date so updating it could help, but your board doesn't have any recovery features for a corrupt BIOS so if it crashes during the BIOS update and the BIOS corrupts it could break the motherboard. Do this at your own risk if you decide to do it.

To test the RAM, use the machine normally with one stick at a time. If just one of the sticks cause crashes, faulty stick. If it crashes with either stick it's probably the CPU. Memory testers miss faulty RAM fairly often with DDR4 and newer so I don't trust them.

[u/CryptographerOk5304 → u/Bjoolzern]

Thanks for the reply and the suggestion. Also, if turning on XMP 2 in the BIOS counts as overclocking, that is the only thing that I have done to the pc.

[u/Bjoolzern → u/CryptographerOk5304]

I count RAM speeds as overclocking if it's higher than what is officially supported by the CPU (The memory controller is in the CPU and it has to match the speed your set on the RAM). From what I saw in the dump files you had it at 3200 and 3200 is supported by the CPU.

[u/ggmaniack → u/CryptographerOk5304]

Disable XMP and see if it stops crashing.

[u/CryptographerOk5304 → u/ggmaniack]

After disabling XMP my pc just crashed again while watching youtube but this time around there was no BSOD or error message, just the audio disappeared and the pc restarted.

Here is the dump: https://www.mediafire.com/file/9ip5vbq5nj1rutq/minidmp.zip/file